S.C. officials troubled by presence of D.C. offenders

While D.C. officials search for two young escapees and debate whether they should place juvenile offenders in out-of-state facilities, two South Carolina legislators are looking into the types of youths being placed on their turf.

Delonte Parker, 19, remains on the loose after he and three other wards of the D.C. Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS) escaped Wednesday from the Palmetto Behavioral Health in Summerville, about 25 miles from Charleston. Three of the young men were caught by Dorchester County sheriff’s deputies the next morning.

“I live about a quarter-mile from the facility,” said Mr. Murphy, who served on the Dorchester County Council for eight years before his election to the House. “It’s a highly urban area, with nothing more than one subdivision after another. I didn’t even know the place existed until I heard about the escape.”

Mr. Limehouse, whose Charleston district is just south of the Summerville area, said that the youths’ presence was “news to me,” and that local residents are more confused than angry.

He also raised an eyebrow over security at the facility, which consists of a backyard-style wooden fence with two feet of lattice on top.

“I could get over these fences,” said Mr. Limehouse, who described himself as 6-feet-3-inches tall and weighing 290 pounds.

The escape occurred two days after another DYRS ward, 18-year-old Treyvon Carey, beat a corrections officer at New Beginnings Youth Development Center in Laurel, used a ladder to hop a razor-wire fence and drove the officer’s car to the Barry Farm section of Southeast. He also remains at large.

DYRS is responsible for more than 1,013 youths, with 225 of them placed in about a dozen states, Director Neil A. Stanley said at a news conference Thursday.

The recent escapes prompted D.C. Council member Jim Graham, Ward 1 Democrat and chairman of the Committee on Human Services that has oversight of DYRS, to call for a closer look at out-of-state placements. When placed far away, the youths are separated from their families and have no network to support them, he said.

Meanwhile, South Carolina legislators won’t be wasting any time when they head back into session Tuesday.

Mr. Murphy pledged to speak to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control to explore age limits and restrictions on the type of young offenders placed in South Carolina. He will consider legislative remedies, depending on the “answers I receive or don’t receive.”